Springboard

Jon Hall

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Many companies have a vast array of technologies that are sitting on the shelf or were previously deployed for a single application. There could be lots more ways to harness those technologies across a wider portfolio of products/brands. To figure that out, we're big fans of Marketing and R&D idea exchanges.

To drive innovative thinking, there’s real value in having both insider and outsider perspectives collaborating. Insiders likely have a deep understanding of their consumer, category, and competencies. But that expertise can become self-limiting, as their ideas are colored by their shared filters. Blending that expertise with forward thinkers who aren’t constrained by preconceived notions is a winning combination when it comes to driving innovative and actionable thinking.

What do a Marketing Professor, Advertising Creative and Serial Entrepreneur have in common?

They were among two dozen Brain Trust experts in one of SpencerHall’s recent cloud-based Transforum ideation sessions.

In SpencerHall’s 20+ years of experience driving innovative thinking, we’ve seen the power that comes from having a diverse a mix of outsideperspectives collaborate with project teams to push them beyond conventional thinking, challenging assumptions and finding truly innovative new product and service ideas.

Think differently; rethink; reimagine! Despite all these exhortations, most project teams fall short when they try to brainstorm new business ideas. Why? Often, it’s because they lack the breadth of perspectives to push them beyond conventional wisdom and consensus thinking, and into new territories and new ways of thinking.

Has this happened to you: you’re out with a group of friends, and one makes a good-natured wisecrack about you. You try to come back with some snappy repartee but caught by surprise, your response isn’t quite as clever as you hoped. Hours later, you think of the perfect comeback. If only you could go back in time!

With all the recent emphasis around process engineering, it’s easy for companies to fall in the trap of streamlining development efforts without having a compelling idea to rally around. While the focus on process optimization is appropriate, no development effort succeeds if the ideas being developed aren’t compelling to begin with. As Peter Drucker noted, “There is surely nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency what should not be done at all.”

Recently, Fast Company published “Brainstorming is Dumb,” asserting that brainwriting – an alternate method to brainstorming that encourages broader collaboration within a group – is a more productive approach to ideation. In fact, the article introduces how psychologists undertook studies of the approaches and their empirical results came down in favor of brainwriting.

In our last blog, “Where Does Creativity Come From,” we examined how creative people were able to come up with new ideas, as well as the different factors that influence their idea generation. In a study to see how the brain functions when trying to think of new ideas, researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to monitor the brain activity of freestyle rappers when trying to think of new lyrics on the spot. What they discovered was their brains’ ability to “deactivate” normally busy areas of the brain when trying to think of new lyrics, and instead focus its energy on other areas that assist with idea generation and creativity.

With today’s marketers setting aside an average 9% of their total marketing budgets for innovation, it’s clear that innovation plays an important part of brands’ marketing and research strategies. That being said, however, with many businesses tightening and cutting back on their marketing and research budgets following the Great Recession, that 9% has become less and less valuable over the past few years. As brands continue to get used to the “new normal” of today’s recovering economy, they need to be cautious with limited resources while they work to remain relevant. Tighter budgets and fewer employees are forcing innovators to think smarter and make resource-conscious changes that will allow them to accomplish more with less. In today’s ultra competitive environment, failing to move forward with disruptive innovation strategies can be a killer blow to your brand’s long-term success, but thankfully there are some cost-effective solutions to help any brand looking to innovate on a budget.